ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF A BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE ADDITIVE BASED ON THE EXTRACT OF ASPEN BARK IN RELATION TO THE SARS-COV-2 IN EXPERIMENTS IN VIVO

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Purpose of the research. Study of antiviral activity, determination of a safe and effective dose of a dietary supplement based on aspen bark extract against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a Syrian hamster model. Material and methods. The object of the study was a biologically active food supplement based on an extract of aspen bark (Populus tremula L.), containing a concentrated aqueous extract of aspen bark and dihydroquercetin. We used a strain of coronavirus homologous to the early strain of hu-man SARS-CoV-2, Wuhan-Hu-1, obtained from the State Collection of Viral Infections and Rickettsiosis of the FBRI SRC VB «Vector» of Rospotrebnadzor. The study of antiviral activity was carried out on Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) obtained from the nursery of laboratory animals of the FBRI SRC VB «Vector» of Rospotrebnadzor, according to the following parameters: the amount of virus RNA (viral load) and the infectious titer of the virus in the tissues of the lungs and nasal cavity. Results. It was established that under the indicated conditions of therapy, an effective safe daily dose of the drug based on aspen bark extract is a dose of 2000 mg/kg – on the fourth day after infection, virus replication on the nasal mucosa of infected animals significantly decreased by 3 times and the infectious titer of the virus – by 43 times. With an increase in the daily dose to 4000 mg / kg, signs of a toxic effect were observed. The min-imum therapeutic daily dosage of the drug in the early period after infection with respect to SARS-CoV-2 was determined - at a daily dose of 250 mg/kg, the drug significantly reduced the viral load in the tissues of the nasal cavity by 6.6 times and the infectious titer by 12.5 times. Conclusions. As a result of in vivo studies, it has been shown that a biologically active food supplement based on aspen bark extract has antiviral ac-tivity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.